Trees for Somerset Conference Update

Over 50 Parish Councillors from
Sedgemoor, Taunton and West Somerset districts attended the conference on 29th
January 2020 at West Monkton Village Hall.
A packed programme of speakers and activities kept delegates engaged;
Ben Thorne from the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG) on the role of
trees and hedges in flood mitigation, Alan Hall from the Taunton Country Park
project on the green corridor being planted to lessen the environmental damage done
by the massive increase in housing in Taunton.
Other contributions came from Plotgate Community Agriculture, Sedgemoor
and Mendip Landscape Officers and Parish Councillors.

The Parish Tree Policy was
distributed and discussed – hopefully the take up for this will be positive. After a delicious lunch sourced from Somerset
Local Food Direct, delegates walked to a nearby planting scheme. Attention was drawn to a number of problems
with the planting, not least the number of trees that had died. Phil Stone led an informed discussion on why
this had occurred with learning taken on the importance of preparation,
planting and maintenance.

Back at the Village hall, the
different supports available for planting schemes were outlined, both financial
and practical. Before leaving delegates
were asked to think about what ‘actions’ they would take from today’s
conference and we look forward to hearing how these have evolved.

Future Visits and Training

RTL ran a
training for community tree planting project leaders in November 2019 and will
repeat this training for the coming season of tree planting 2020-21

RTL ran an
orchard restoration training earlier in January 2020 and is running a fruit
tree grafting workshop on April 23rd 2020